Monsters
by Synphilia
Summary: The Tenno call themselves heroes, but is that really the truth? Follow the adventures of an ordinary Corpus Crewman named Telko, and an extraordinary Tenno.
1. Chapter 1 - And Everything Went Black

Chapter One

And Everything Went Black

Cold. So cold. Telko ran his hand over the cold metallic motors of his left arm, examining the various wires and pistons. It had been only three days since his original arm of flesh and blood had been replaced by this cold, mechanical one. He reached up to his left shoulder and felt the raw, pink flesh where metal and flesh met. It was very crudely done, and wires could be clearly seen snaking under his skin. He sighed, dropping his right arm back to his side, feeling the smooth, cold, metal floor he was sitting on. The reason he was here, with a new mechanical arm still brought him a feeling of immense dread. A week ago, a distant relative of his had been confirmed missing, and due to Corpus law, deemed dead. Because of this, all of their supposed debt had been transferred over to him. He was now being transported to a debt colony somewhere on Venus, where he would supposedly work off his debt with the help of his cybernetic arm. He could hardly believe the situation he was in, and the injustice of it all made his blood boil with anger. Why should he have to pay off debts he had nothing to do with?

He didn't really believe that his relative was dead, despite what the authorities said. It was very common for the Corpus to ignore evidence, and he doubted they had even searched thoroughly. It was possible, of course, with the solar system in such a state of turmoil. In recent years, tension had been increasing between the Corpus, the Grineer, and the Tenno. He had never seen a Tenno, but he had heard many, many, stories. He wondered if it was because of a Tenno that his relative had gone missing.

With a jolt, his thoughts snapped back to the present as the floor shook, tremors running through the cargo hold of the carrier he was being transported in. He wondered what had caused it. It was likely something had merely malfunctioned somewhere. It was a very large ship after all.

With another sigh, he glanced around at his surroundings. his was sitting on the floor, slouched against the wall of his empty containment cell. It was a rather plain room, apart from the energy barrier blocking the exit.

On the other side of the barrier stood one of the ship's many crewman, who was currently acting as a guard, with a standard issue Flux rifle clutched in his gloved hands. The crewman was wearing the standard uniform of the Corpus; a simple grey-blue jumpsuit of plasteel weave, complete with a blocky and rectangular helmet, which obscured the crewman's face. At the crewman's side stood a Moa, a mechanical construct that made up the majority of the Corpus army. It was a simple thing. It had the look of something organic, like a bird, that had been converted into metal. It was essentially a pair of legs with a battery pack strapped to the top, alongside a heavy-duty energy cannon.

The room shook again, stronger this time, and the crewman glanced around uneasily. It seemed the crewman knew no more than Telko did about the unknown tremors.

Suddenly, the entire room shook violently, and Telko was thrown across the room where he hit the wall painfully. The crewman looked extremely uneasy, he had his handheld communications device in his hand, but it seemed to be unresponsive. As Telko picked himself up off of the floor, the ship gave a final, small tremor. Then, without warning, the lights went out, leaving the room lit by nothing except the turquoise glow of the energy barrier. In the weak light of the barrier, Telko saw the crewman tighten his grip on his rifle, staring fearfully out into the inky darkness of the now-dark cargo hold. Then, the emergency lights flickered on, one by one, illuminating the cargo hold with their dim red light.

It was then, that Telko saw something that made his blood run cold. There, silhouetted in the red light, was a figure. It stood perfectly still, completely silent.

With a horrified gasp, the crewman reached for his communications device, but the figure was faster. Telko heard the metallic whisper of a blade moving through the air, and, with the distinct glint of metal, the crewman was suddenly staggering backwards. Telko heard the communications device hit the floor with a clatter, followed by the the thump of a body.

The Moa reacted with a mechanical screech, aiming it's energy cannon at the intruder, but, once again, the figure was faster. Telko glimpsed another metallic flash, once, twice, until the Moa crashed to the ground, sparks flying from its severed battery pack.

The figure approached the energy barrier, and, for the first time, Telko was able to see it in full detail. At first glance, it had the body of a woman, but it was clear, that this was no woman, human or otherwise. It's skin appeared to be made of metal, yet it moved smoothly and soundlessy with the figure's movements, gleaming with an iridescent shine. Looking up, Telko saw that it had no face, but rather a boxy, grey rectangle covering where the eyes should have been. At it's side, was a sword, hidden away in a sheath. The sword was slightly curved, and appeared to be around three feet long. But the strangest feature of all, were the cables. There were cables dangling from the back of its head, elbows and from a boxy shape that seemed fused to the figure's back. There was no doubt in Telko's mind. This, was a Tenno.

For a moment the Tenno seemed to look at Telko through the energy barrier, as if it was considering him. Then, with yet another flash of movement, the Tenno lashed out with it's sword. The barrier flickered momentarily before fizzling out completely, leaving the room lit by nothing but the emergency lights. The Tenno stepped forward, and before he could react, it seized him roughly by the scruff of his neck. To his immense discomfort, Telko found himself being dragged down a dark corridor by the Tenno. He struggled against it's grip, but it was no use. It was unnaturally strong, and pulled him along easily. They rounded a corner and the Tenno froze, dropping Telko to the ground.

He began to climb to his feet, but froze in a crouch. At the end of the hallway stood dozens of Corpus crewmen and Moa. However, these crewmen, unlike the guards that had been assigned to Telko's containment cell, were armored and carrying heavy-duty plasma rifles. A security team.

The Tenno broke into a sprint down the hallway towards the group. As it ran, it let loose a short, ear-piercing scream. The sound reverberated off the metal walls, and pounded in Telko's eardrums. As he watched, the security team stumbled backwards. Telko realized that it was not a scream, but a battle cry. Suddenly, the Tenno slid into a crouch, and jumped over the heads of the security team. Landing behind them, the Tenno reached down towards it's hip, where what appeared to be an energy pistol materialized in it's hand. One after another, the enemy hit the ground, felled by the Tenno's gunfire. As Telko watched, the Tenno hit each target with laser precision. In seconds, the entire security team had been defeated.

Striding forward through the remains of the crewman, the Tenno once again grabbed Telko by the scruff of his neck. Within seconds, the Tenno had resumed its normal pace. As they ran, the ship began to shake violently once more. Unlike before, Telko could clearly hear explosions echoing distantly. Suddenly, they burst through a door, and Telko glimpsed a massive, cavernous hangar as well as a considerable amount of crewman. Before he could react, the room was suddenly ablaze with light of a massive explosion. The shockwave causing even the Tenno to stagger backwards. The smoke began to clear, but bizzarrely, the debris didn't. It simply hung there, floating in midair, along with the bodies of the incinerated crewmen.

The Tenno seemed wholly unbothered by the destruction, and simply stood there, as if it was waiting for something. Then, off in the distance, Telko glimpsed a flicker of movement. There, weaving through the wreckage like a serpent, was a ship. But it was unlike any ship Telko had ever seen before.

It was shimmering, distorting its surroundings, misleading the eye, and impossible to focus on. Through the ringing in his ears from the explosion, Telko could hear more crewmen behind them. As the ship began to descend upon their position, the Tenno began to sprint, dragging Telko in its wake. As he half-stumbled, half-ran, Telko glimpsed a gap in the ship's underside opening.

With a great heave, the Tenno grabbed Telko around his midsection, and threw him bodily into the hatch, before jumping in after him. Telko staggered to his feet, but, dizzy and disoriented from the explosion, he stumbled and fell. His head connected with the hard metal floor, and everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2 - A Thousand Crimson Shards

Chapter Two

A Thousand Crimson Shards

Telko's head hurt. Badly. He could feel the spot where he had hit the floor, throbbing. His eyes flickered open.

"So you're awake." said a voice. "Took you long enough."

Slowly, his surroundings came into sharper focus. The first thing he saw, was the Tenno. But it was slumped against the wall, head hanging limply. A figure was crouched beside it, seemingly inspecting it. The first thing Telko noticed about the figure was its hair, if you could even call it hair. It was long and smooth, and shimmered iridescently, just like the skin of the Tenno. The figure stood up, and turned to face him. Telko's immediate impression was that of a child. It was a girl, hardly any taller than Telko himself. At least, it appeared that way. The thing that was most peculiar about the girl was her eyes, which glowed with a fiery amber light.

She leaned against the wall, where she glanced at a nearby monitor.

"You know, you shouldn't stare so much, it's rude."

"I- I-" Telko sputtered. He found that his voice didn't quite work properly after not speaking for so long.

"What- what's going on?" He finally said.

She ignored this, "Are you hurt badly?" She asked in tone that clearly stated that she didn't care in the slightest about his well being.

"I- no."

"Good," she said, now typing something on the monitor. "The Council would be pretty angry with me if I brought back a brain damaged rescue target."

"Rescue target?" He asked. "Why—"

She cut him off, "—The Tenno Council has ordered the acquisition of Telko Zudd for questioning." she said quickly. "Or something like that anyways." she muttered.

"Questioning?" He inquired. "Why would—"

"—I don't know," she said, cutting him off again "My job is to get you to the Council with minimal damage done, I don't really know the details."

"Bu—"

"—Look," she said, casting him an irritated look "We've just passed Jupiter, and we'll be arriving at the Kronia Relay in five minutes, you'll probably get all your questions answered there anyways, so just be quiet and sit still for a while."

He obeyed, his fear of the girl stronger than his curiosity, and resolved to sit in silence for the rest of the trip. He thought about what the girl had said about just passing Jupiter. He wondered just how fast this Tenno ship was, if it could travel between planets in mere minutes.

Suddenly, an unknown voice spoke.

"Operator, incoming object detected, I am unable to acquire scan data due to unknown interference."

Telko started. The voice seemed to have come from the very walls of the ship. It had a flat, emotionless quality to it. Telko was sure that it was a computer, likely dedicated to managing the ship.

"It's probably just a random asteroid or something." muttered the girl, still typing on the monitor.

"Acknowledged." said the computer. "I will refrain from alerting you about such objects in the future." "However, this particular object is travelling on a direct interception trajectory for this ship."

"Yeah, yeah, be quiet, you dumb Cephalo- wait, say that again?" the girl said.

"Acknowledged, I will—"

"—No no no, what you said after that!" she interrupted hurriedly.

"This object is travelling on a direct interception course for this—"

The girl suddenly dove for the Tenno slumped against the wall, but before she could reach it, she was thrown back as the ship shook violently with the sound of a distant explosion.

Telko, who had been sitting at the time, had not been shaken so badly. He squinted through the now-flickering lights to where the girl lay sprawled on the ground.

"Jan, lock the door!" she shouted as she struggled to her feet.

"Locking doors one through twenty-five" said the computer.

The ship shook again, stronger this time. Telko could hear the explosions clearer this time. Before either Telko or the girl could move, the door leading out of the room was blasted out of its frame, where it smashed into the opposite wall, barely missing where Telko was sitting.

Through a great deal of smoke, Telko caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure, tall and imposing.

As he was struggling back to his feet, he was suddenly seized from behind, and lifted into the air, his feet dangling below him.

As he watched, Telko saw another figure seize the girl, and lift her up into the air as well.

"Is it really just these these two kids?" muttered one of the two figures.

"Looks like it." replied the other.

"Huh, I was really expecting more, with a ship of this caliber."

"Whatever, lets just get these two to the boss."

Telko felt something cold and metallic pressed to his neck, heard a mechanical hiss, and everything went dark once again.

He awoke for the second time this day lying on a cold, metallic floor. He sat up, glancing around at his surroundings. It was a room not very different from the holding cell he had initially been held in, except it had metal bars instead of an energy field. There would be no deactivating those.

"Looks like you're finally awake, you sure do take a while waking up." said a voice.

He quickly turned his head to see the same girl from before, sitting against the wall with both her legs and arms crossed. Any questions that came to mind died in his throat as he felt a sharp pain in his neck. Clapping his hand to his neck, he felt raw, pink flesh where the metallic object had touched him.

"It was just a tranq injector, the pain will fade soon." the girl said, eyeing his neck.

Telko saw that she too had a similar mark on her neck.

"What—"

"—happened?" she finished for him.

"Y- yeah"

"To put it simply, we were caught by pirates, and good ones at that. To think anyone would have the nerve to shoot a Tenno ship right out of warp." she said, scoffing. "We're just lucky they didn't find my Warframe."

"Your Warframe?" he inquired.

"You know, the thing I rescued you with."

"The Tenno?" he said, confused. "That was you?"

"That thing wasn't Tenno, it was a Warframe, a machine piloted by Tenno."

"So, you're a Tenno?"

"Well obviously, are you always this slow on the uptake?"

"How—"

"—I don't have time to explain the process to you, right now we should be focusing on getting out of here.

"Oh, right, we need a plan—

"—I've already got a plan."

"Will you stop interrupting me?!"

She ignored this, and glanced at the ceiling , where Telko could see a simple camera perched there.

"I don't think that thing can pick up audio, so we should be fine for the time being." she said cautiously.

"So what's the plan?" he asked tentatively.

"It's simple, I pretend to try and kill you."

"You, what?!"

"Im not going to _actually_ kill you, just pretend to."

"But- why?"

"From the looks of it, these pirates aren't particularly keen on killing, so I'm willing to bet that if their captives suddenly tried to strangle each other, someone would probably come running."

"_That's_ your plan?" Telko asked incredulously.

"Do you have any better ideas?"

Telko was silent. He didn't.

"Well, here goes."

Before he knew it, he had been trapped in an armlock. For a supposedly pretend fight, her grip was very strong. Before long, Telko's head was beginning to spin.

"Hey, stop that!" called an unknown voice.

He heard the metallic screech of a rusty door being wrenched open, and suddenly he found himself on the ground, the girl having relinquished her hold on him. Telko looked up, and saw the girl leaping at the guard. A kick. A punch. In a flurry of movement, the guard was on the ground, unconscious, with the girl standing over it.

She held up a keycard.

"Let's go."

Scrambling to his feet, he quickly followed her through the door, which she closed behind her, trapping the guard within.

"Won't someone see him on the camera, and come to get him?" asked Telko.

"Probably, but we'll be gone by then." the girl replied, now inspecting the keycard. "C'mon, lets hurry"

They broke into a run down the corridor, which was lined with row upon row of empty holding cells.

"Where are we going?"

"To get my Warframe, where else?"

"Do you even have any idea where it is?" Telko asked as they rounded a corner.

"I- well, no." she admitted "But, I do know how we can find out."

"How?"

"By finding an access panel and hacking it."

"You can do that?" asked Telko, astonished.

"Of course, it's a pretty standard skill." she replied, with a note of pride in her voice.

Eventually, they arrived at a large room that Telko could only assume was a kind of engine room, for it was filled with large machines that were producing a great deal of sound.

"Perfect." said the girl, and ran over to a nearby panel.

Telko followed, although much slower, for he was looking around cautiously, checking the room for threats. The girl was now typing away furiously on the panel. After several minutes of her typing and Telko standing nearby awkwardly, she looked up.

"Found it!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Suddenly, all the machines in the room stopped abruptly. The room was now filled with a deathly silence.

"What did you _do_?" Telko asked quietly.

"That wasn't me." she whispered.

Telko could feel the temperature of the room dropping quickly, and their breath was beginning to fog.

"No way." breathed the girl. "Hurry, this way." she said, and ran through a nearby door.

Telko, for once, decided not to question it and followed. They ran through hallway after hallway, each one progressively colder than the last. Telko wondered why such a reasonably sized ship was so empty, and cold. Finally, they arrived at a kind of balcony that was overlooking a small, dingy hangar. At the far corner, stood the Tenno ship. Or rather, what Telko could only assume was the ship, for he could only see the distorted outline of it. It was freezing cold in there.

It was immediately clear why the ship had seemed so empty. On the hangar floor below them, what must have been most of the ship's crew, all surrounding a single figure. The figure was quite tall, an its skin was the color and texture of freshly formed ice. The figure was using nothing but a massive double-headed battle-axe, the blade of which also seemed to be made of ice. Telko was quite sure that this was a Tenno.

As they watched, the Tenno wielded the axe with brutal efficiency. despite being surrounded by no more than 20 crewmembers, it was clear who was winning. The refurbished weaponry and patchwork armor of the crew stood no chance against the brutal strikes of the Tenno blade.

However, what was strangest about the battle was the absence of blood. Telko was quite sure that the crew weren't machines, and yet, not a single drop of blood seemed to have been spilled. Yet, as Telko's eyes followed the gleaming blade's progress, the answer became clear.

With every strike, the axe froze everything it came into contact with, and caused it to shatter, sending up a shower of shining red ice. One by one, the crew members fell, often in multiple pieces, until only one was left. Telko, watched in horror as the Tenno stepped forward and seized the crewman by the throat.

The crewman struggled, grasping fruitlessly at the Tenno's icy hands, until its arms fell limply to its side, where they became oddly stiff. The Tenno finally relinquished its grip, and the crewman fell to the ground, where it shattered into a thousand crimson shards.


End file.
